New hate crime law isolates demographic

November 12, 2009 by Afan Tarar 

New law that includes sexual orientation in hate crimes further marginalizes gay community.

President Barack Obama signed an interesting piece of legislation into law a few weeks ago. This law stipulates that acting on a person’s sexual orientation is now officially a hate crime.

I don’t want to give off the image that I hate homosexuals or that I am an ignorant conservative.

On the contrary, I believe gays should be given the exact same rights as all other Americans.

Gays should be open about their orienation in the military and be able to marry and adopt children. The gay community should be able to enjoy the same rights everyone else does.

But I am not in favor of giving people special status for reasons like sexual preference. That to me says that we cannot accept the gay and lesbian community as our equals and that they need to always be labeled.

This law is practically impossible to enforce and singles out the homosexual community even more.

This law has slippery slope written all over it. Where do you begin to draw the line on this process of categorization? At first we stopped on race and gender. Now we continue on to sexual orientation and where do we stop?

What kind of legal precedence do we set by isolating and singling out the homosexual community any more? I thought the goal of the equality campaigns was to incorporate homosexuality into everyday American lifestyle, to be accepted and given the rights that all other Americans have.

Legislation like this isolates and gives that community a special status.

I find myself not sold on this piece of legislation simply because I find that there is no way one can enforce the law.

Think about it – anyone can claim they are gay without being challenged.

For example, my friend and I claim that we are in a gay relationship on Facebook as a joke.

If someone beats me up, I could easily claim that it was because of my sexual orientation to get back at the person – the person just committed a federal offense.

I have proof too – I am in an openly gay relationship on Facebook and there is nothing the authorities can do to prove that I am not. They have to take my word for it.

When it comes to racial hate crimes, it can be relatively easy to prove: It is easy to tell what race someone is – you simply have to look.

But you can’t tell if someone is gay.

Do you then have to start giving them special cards that say they are indeed gay? What if someone is African American or Hispanic American and also a homosexual?

Which hate crime do you pin on that person? I have never heard of judgment of a dual hate crime being implemented before, but it seems like this new law leaves the door open for a lot of different, strange legal confusion.

I am not an intolerant person and I see gay Americans to be as normal as anyone else.

That’s how they should be treated – no more, no less.